Notebook: Aidsmap Plays Four Easy Pieces

Homophobia, poverty, poor ARV adherence, and apathy. Four easy pieces.

Reports are coming out of Uganda that PEPFAR funds are being used to promote the homophobic agenda of the government and NGOs in that country. A choice quote from Aidsmap:

James Kigozi of the Ugandan AIDS commission has defended the lack of any reference to gay or bisexual men in the country’s HIV strategy saying, “the practice of homosexuality is illegal.”

PEPFAR has become a slush fund for charlatans (abstinence only promotors, Halperin et al's circumcision) and repressive governments. As usual, money has corrupted so many who have received it in the name of a noble cause.

Most people will readily see the logical linkage between financial worries and health. In the US, it's a matter of ever-pressing concern. Two studies, one in the US and one a meta-analysis of Africa-based studies, have shown that if you are poor, you are likely to fail to adhere to your regimen. HIV may kill, but not without poverty. Secondary lesson: You can give people drugs, but you can't make them take them.

Finally, US researchers have announced the unexpected result that patients are presenting later for HIV treatment than nearly two decades ago. To cut through the clutter, the reasons are boiled down to insurance, universal testing, and the linkage between the two. Again, poverty is the culprit aided by poverty's help-mate, apathy. Poor people and the uninsured, groups that are often interchangeable, present later. And these groups exist in greater number in the US than in the last two decades. The article concludes:

Goicoechea and Smith agree with the study's authors that “these data support the argument for mainstream HIV testing,” but add that, “they also highlight the issue of universal health care coverage.”

“HIV disease is a disease of poverty," they note. "In the United States, HIV infection disproportionately affects uninsured, low-income persons, who constitute a vulnerable population that often has multiple health care needs.”

They conclude by arguing that, "‘universal’ HIV testing also requires ‘universal’ health care for there to be a significant impact on diagnosing HIV infection at the earliest stage possible. As the United States and other resource-wealthy countries move forward to build health care infrastructure and scale-up antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings, it is a shameful commentary on our own health care system that the average CD4+ T-cell count before the initiation of antiretroviral therapy in North America is similar to that of some underdeveloped countries in Africa.”

Comments

[Joe in CA]

Israeli Doctors "Help Out" in Swaiziland

Who knew they gave a damn about HIV prevention?

Or is it they really DON'T?

The look on these African men's faces when they learn they caught HIV despite being circumcised is gonna be PRICELESS.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/20/AR2007102001206.html

[IntactwhitemaleUSA]

What is it with the Washington Post and circ promotion? Does living inside the Beltway cause an unnatural interest in another's genitals? Even The New York Times and MSNBC have dropped this hot potato. I'm going to write them and inform them about this site and I hope everyone else here does too. They make me really sick - I will never pay for a copy of their rag but can still monitor it at the library. Makes you wonder about the '4 star' quality of the rest of their investigative reporting, doesn't it?

[IntactwhitemaleUSA]

BTW - BBC's website "Have Your Say" is having a discussion about male circumcision right now and I have to say it's overwhelmingly Intactivist, not just men and women from Britain and Europe but America as well; also from some people who have seen through the haze in Africa too. Keep fighting, WE WILL WIN, but we have to keep hammering away. Condoms and common sense not superstition and half-truths!

[J]

Speaking of the Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101368_Comments.html

[J]

It ran off the page try this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101368.html

or search the post for 'halperin' be sure to comment. :)